It is generally known to provide a vehicle including a vehicle frame assembly of any known or appropriate type such as a unitary body or a body on frame assembly. It is also generally known to provide a vehicle including various structures for improving the performance of the vehicle during a variety of types of impacts to the vehicle. The performance of a vehicle and its various structures, assemblies and components from an impact may be assessed using a variety of crash tests and analytical methodologies.
A frontal crash having a relatively small amount of overlap may be designed to attempt to replicate what may happen when only a relatively small portion of the front corner of a vehicle collides with another object like a vehicle, tree, utility pole or the like. One known industry test is the small overlap rigid barrier (SORB) test. In the SORB test, a vehicle travels at 40 mph toward a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier and only the outer 25% of the vehicle width is impacted into the barrier. It is generally understood that most modern vehicles may be designed to have safety cages and other structures, assemblies and components for protecting the occupant compartment and built to help manage energy with controlled and limited deformation to the vehicle during a variety of impacts to the vehicle from most direction, including a head-on and overlap frontal crashes. The crush zones of the main body and frame structures are designed to manage the crash energy to reduce forces on the occupant compartment and its occupants. When a crash involves these structures, the occupant compartment may generally be protected from intrusion, and the airbags and safety restraints may perform to restrain and help protect vehicle occupants.
Small overlap frontal crashes primarily affect a vehicle's outer edges, which may not be directly protected by some of the primary crush-zone structures. In such a scenario, crash forces may go directly into the front wheel, suspension system and potentially the vehicle firewall and body including the passenger compartment. In a small overlap crash which does not engage the main structures of the vehicle it may be possible for the wheel to be forced rearward toward the passenger compartment of the body of the vehicle.
The wheel may be trapped between the rigid barrier and the body structure thus applying local loads that may surpass steel or aluminum structure material strengths. This is notably different since the understood prior art devices are designed and intended to prevent the wheel from moving, turning or twisting during a frontal impact and/or SORB testing. Without this invention, the wheel can get trapped between the rigid barrier and the body structure that applies local loads that may surpass steel or aluminum structure material strengths.
Even though such crush-zone and body (or body) on frame type structures have been known and may have some certain advantages, there remains a continuing and significant need to provide improved impact or crush performance structures having a lower cost structure and having optimized structural efficiencies. In body-on-frame vehicle architectures, particularly as the vehicle weight increases (such as with larger trucks), it has recently been noticed that the effectiveness of any vehicle wheel kinematics modifiers becomes reduced. There remains a significant need to address the wheel load path as it contacts the backup structure at unfavorable angles presenting a risk for increased intrusion in the dash area and the lower compartment negatively affecting the IIHS SORB structural and overall rating performance. In particular, there remains a continuing and significant need to provide additional improved impact performance in a vehicle that will include reducing intrusion of the forward structures, including in particular the wheel and tire of the vehicle, into the body or occupant compartment of the vehicle.